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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

Jared Fogle Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges; Plane Strikes Runway Lights On Aborted Landing; Accuser's Testimony Examined In Court. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired August 19, 2015 - 16:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[16:30:03]

YOUNG: And the guilty pleas are too.

Jared Fogle was hustled out of an Indiana court today, refusing to answer questions.

JARED FOGLE, DEFENDANT: You know, I speak to children all over the country, and actually all over the world now.

YOUNG: For the longtime Subway spokesman and kids charity founder, the weight of child pornography charges will remain for a lifetime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jared Fogle expects to go to prison. Jared also knows that he has a medical problem.

YOUNG: The father of two pleaded guilty to receipt and distribution of child pornography, as well as traveling to engage and pay for sex with minors.

Court documents show there are at least 14 victims and Fogle didn't act alone. Russell Taylor, the former head of the Jared Foundation, Fogle's charity to combat childhood obesity, allegedly was in on it, too.

Investigators retrieved electronics and DVDs from both men's homes in raids earlier this year. Documents show explicit images of children as young as six were uncovered. The documents also allege Taylor used hidden cameras and clock radios to capture images of unknowing minors changing clothes, showering, and bathing in his home.

Investigators say he then distributed the images to Fogle and others. But perhaps the most shocking is what happened here at the Plaza Hotel in New York in 2012. Documents state Fogle engaged in sex with a prostitute age 17, paid for it, and later asked her to introduce him to more girls.

Documents say Fogle told her he would accept a 16-year-old, the younger the girl, the better. Fogle will serve at least five years in federal prison. The 37-year-old former Subway star also faces additional consequences as part of the plea agreement, including mandatory monitoring of his electronic devices, mandatory treatment for sexual disorders, a fee of $1.4 million. That's $100,000 for each of the 14 victims.

And he must register as a sex offender. Subway says: "We no longer have a relationship with Jared." And today Fogle's wife says she is seeking to end hers as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: Now, of course, John, there are people here screaming from the crowd, saying, what about the children? What about the children? Fogle never looked up.

Now, his attorney also put out a statement which in part reads: "Jared also understands that he requires significant psychiatric and medical treatment and counseling. He has already begun that process by being extensively examined by a world-renowned expert in sexual conditions in order to chart a course of recovery."

It was a very interesting scene here also in court. We noticed he did not have a wedding ring on, and many times he kept clasping his hands as the judge was talking about the charges he faces -- John.

BERMAN: And 14 victims. His wife says she's seeking the dissolution of the marriage.

Ryan Young, thank you so much.

In our money lead, millions of potentially cheaters exposed after hackers released their personal information. Does this mean you can find out if your spouse is cheating? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:37:15]

BERMAN: Welcome back to THE LEAD.

Today's money lead, potential cheaters exposed -- 32 million people who used the Web site Ashley Madison to order their perhaps extramarital hookups now have their names, credit cards and e-mail accounts out there for the world to see. Hackers followed through on a promise to public this information after accessing the Web site last month.

At first, you could only find the leaked data on the secret dark Web, but now it's out there and it may be a lot easier to obtain.

Laurie Segall, our CNN Money tech correspondent, joins me right now.

Laurie, let me begin with a loaded question for you. If you're concerned that your information has been compromised on Ashley Madison, how can you find out?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, there definitely many, many places you can go now. What was so scary about this is it was all on the dark Web. And

people were wondering, could my data be there? Now there are sites on the open Web. There's actually one site up right now where you can actually put in the e-mail of the potential cheater, first and last name.

You're looking at it right there and it will let you know if someone is on that list. There's so many of these sites popping up. There's also a map that someone is building that is geolocating where a lot of people are.

It's pretty scary. When you look at the amount, the sheer amount of volume of data that was released, we're talking 33 million accounts, 36 million e-mail addresses, payment information, street addresses, internal corporate data. John, I can't emphasize enough this was 35 gigabytes of data that was put on the dark Web, which is very difficult to access.

And it's now finally making its way over to the open Web, where anyone can access it, John.

BERMAN: Yes. It was on the dark Web first, but once it's out there, it's out there, and anyone who wants to get their hands on it no doubt will be able to.

Why? Do we know anything about why the hackers did this?

SEGALL: It's interesting.

I hadn't heard of this hacker group before. Not many people had. They call themselves the Impact Team. Now, they call themselves hacktivists. And they believed that this site was immoral, people shouldn't be committing adultery.

Obviously, a lot of people feel like that, but they don't go and hack because of it. These guys did. They also said, you know what? Ashley Madison says they're making their data safe, and they're not, and they're going to show you in a very, very big way.

And one thing to note. I have been looking through a lot of the e-mails on there -- 15,000 of those e-mails have government addresses. We can't independently confirm anything, but I actually spoke to a security researcher who's been going back and forth in the dark Web and looking and trying to cross-reference with billing addresses.

And he says he thinks up to 60 percent of these are legitimate. So a lot of people right now, John, are very, very, very worried.

BERMAN: Laurie Segall, thank you so much.

Well to bring in Hemu Nigam. He's a security -- cyber-security expert, former chief security officer of MySpace. Also joining me, Dr. Robi Ludwig, a psychotherapist and author of "Till Death Do Us Part."

[16:40:04] Hemu, I want to start with you.

You know, the whole idea of Ashley Madison is that it's a secret place to set up secret relationships. Secret the number one thing that you would think is important for Ashley Madison. So if they can't keep a secret on the Internet, can anybody?

HEMU NIGAM, CYBER-SECURITY EXPERT: Well, I think the short answer to that is not really.

What we have to really focus on here is, when people are going to sites like this, they have to say to themselves, I may be going to an online site that I think is secret, but the reality is it's really no different than what is happening in the real world. Are you walking into a building where somebody might see you, a brothel, for example?

Are you going to a place you shouldn't be going to because you're married, for example? There are a lot of things that happen online. People think they should treat them differently than their offline, but the conduct can still be visible by the public, by people like this. And hackers are definitely changing the game now. When we used to see hacking stories -- go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: No, it just visiting the site? Or is it just being on the site or is it people who have actually entered information now who are compromised?

NIGAM: Well, if you just visit the site, I think you see a screen that kind of gets you to try to sign up. All the things that you are seeing are people who actually took the time to sit down, punch in on their keyboards their information.

And one thing that is unfortunate here, though, I think we should really make really clear is that you can put in anybody's e-mail address, and it doesn't require you to confirm it. If your address went in there, you wouldn't get a notification, at least in the past, from Ashley Madison, saying, hey, is this really you? Because what if somebody is trying to use your address just to create an account?

BERMAN: That's a fair point.

Dr. Ludwig, let me ask you this. The hackers, they went after cheaters. At least that is what they say they're doing here. So, I don't know. Is there sympathy you think for the victims here?

DR. ROBI LUDWIG, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Maybe a little bit, but not that much, because I think people feel like, well, they had it coming. These are cheaters. They deserve to be outed, they were doing something wrong, so these hackers had a point.

But I think the reality is, is that it goes way beyond this. So now we really know it's not -- we're not able to have secrets online. Maybe we're not able to have secrets offline either.

BERMAN: We have all had fun with this, and all had our raised eyebrows today, me included, but you get to a good point here.

Yes, there's Ashley Madison, but there are a lot of dating Web sites that people rely on. It's one of the only ways that single people now have to meet each other. So, if it happens on Ashley Madison, if you're using one of these other sites, should you be concerned? Are you concerned that it will get in the way of relationships?

(CROSSTALK)

LUDWIG: I think anything that anybody puts online or engages in, in an e-mail or text can be made public.

And so that is what is really scary. We can look again at Ashley Madison and say, well, they were cheaters. They're sleazy. They deserve to be outed and publicly humiliated. But the truth of the matter is this can happen to anyone about anything. And that is what gets into scarier territory. Is there any privacy anymore about anything?

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: And, Hemu, go ahead.

NIGAM: I was going to say, one thing that we also have to point out is that the hackers are engaging in criminal conduct, which is actually different than the moral compass of the individuals who are using this site.

That's a different discussion to be had, but we do have to understand what they did, for whatever reason they did, was still blatantly illegal.

BERMAN: Oh, it is absolutely illegal, what they did.

Laurie Segall, who knows a lot about hacking groups -- really, it's hard to get one past her -- she says she's never heard of this group, but you can assume one thing they want is publicity. It's hard to know whether they really care about adultery.

(CROSSTALK)

NIGAM: That's absolutely true.

LUDWIG: They did threaten, though. They said unless Ashley Madison took down their site, they were going to out the members, and they were going to show that their site was not as confidential as they were claiming it to be.

So I think that there was some moralistic idea behind what they did, or at least that's what they claimed.

BERMAN: All right, thank you, guys. Dr. Robi Ludwig, Hemu Nigam, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

Coming up, a terrifying end to what should have been a normal flight. A plane slams down on the runway before taking back off again. Passengers say they thought they were going to die. That's next.

Plus, another Yosemite visitor gets the plague after visiting the park, the plague. Now a campsite there has been sit down. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Welcome back to THE LEAD. In national news, a scare in the air for passengers on board a U.S. Airways flight, the plane hit the runway, scraping lights along the way before the pilot pulls up and tries it all again. Now investigators are trying to figure out exactly what went wrong.

CNN aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh has been on top of the story all day long and joins us live now. Rene, what happened here?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: John, tonight, the FAA and the NTSB are investigating a violent landing, a U.S Airways flight, as you mentioned, slammed down on the runway giving the 153 passengers on board the scare of their life.

The pilots blame what's called wind shear, which is a sudden change in wind direction or speed, but now tonight the pilots landing that plane are under federal investigation, as safety regulators try to determine whether their actions contributed to this hard landing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH (voice-over): Watch this plane violently rock as it approaches a runway, all because of what's called wind shear. It's similar to what pilots of U.S. Airways Flight 1851 say happened as it prepared to touch down in Charlotte this weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: 1851, we have about a 20-knott wind shear, loss of speed at about 10 feet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Loss of about 10 feet?

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: Yes, sir.

MARSH: It was a heart-stopping crash landing. The tail of the Airbus 321 slammed down on the runway, struck and damaged several runway lights before taking off again.

[16:50:10] CHRISTINE MALLOY, FLIGHT 1851 PASSENGER: I thought that it was over and I just had to close my eyes.

MARSH: Passenger, Christine Malloy, feared the worst.

MALLOY: Things were really chaotic. We had people screaming. There were things kind of flying around in the air.

MARSH: Weather radar shows thunderstorms were building with 30- mile-per-hour wind gusts near the airport at that time. Wind shear is a sudden change in wind speed or direction, potential disastrous for airplanes down to the ground.

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: The airports have Doppler radar, in this case 10 miles away. Air traffic controllers are trained and pilots are trained on how to escape it. So it shouldn't have occurred.

MARSH: Crash landings caused by wind shear are rare. Since 1943, there have only been 87 incidents. After crashes like Delta Flight 191 in 1985, which killed 137 people in Dallas, safety regulators focused on the threat of wind shear, enhancing pilot training and equipment to detect it. And that's why federal investigators want to know what went wrong in this case.

GOELZ: They'll pull the flight data recorder to see exactly what was going on, and to see if the pilots responded correctly. Then they'll make a judgment on it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: Well, tonight the NTSB says it's not only reviewing the black boxes, but weather conditions as well. We do know they're trying to come up with an official cause to this crash landing. The plane had substantial damage, it has been taken out of service, but the airline points out no one on board was hurt -- John.

BERMAN: They are lucky tonight. Rene Marsh, thank you so much.

Coming up, an alleged rape victim takes the stand for a second day, describing messages she and her alleged rapist sent to each other. Do they prove it was part of a sex competition at an elite prep school?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:56:27]

BERMAN: Welcome back to THE LEAD. The National Lead today, a teen who says she was raped at an elite prep school in New Hampshire. She shared her side of the story.

The accuser was a freshman at St. Paul's, the defendant a senior. Their encounter happened at the same school that produced several senators, governors, Secretary of State John Kerry.

Prosecutors say the rape emerged from a so-called senior salute where young men at St. Paul's competed to sleep with younger girls. Today in court the accuser took the stand for a second day.

She claims the Owen Labrie forced himself on her. The defense says there was no sex and that the encounter was consensual. CNN's Jason Carroll listened to the testimony and he joins me now. Jason, she faced a lot of questions.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of questions, and there's a lot of gray area in all this. That's what obvious. What this essentially will come down to is who do jurors believe, the accuser or the defendant?

The accuser told the court that after the alleged assault, she cried and felt like something had been taken away from her. She told jurors that she tried to stop what had happened, but despite that she says she initially felt that everything that happened was her fault.

Again, this case is centered around that prestigious boarding school, St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. The girl, now 16 says Owen Labrie, who was a senior at that time asked her on a date as part of a campus tradition called senior salute.

You talked a little bit about that where older boys get together with younger students just before graduation. The girl, who was 15 at the time, says Labrie sexually assaulted her during her meeting with him.

She said she told the court, "I didn't kick other scream or push, but I did say no. I said no three times in that moment I don't know how I could have made it any more clear."

The teenage girl, who is not being identified because she's a minor, did exchange electronics messages with Labrie following the alleged attack where she called him an angel.

When asked about that message, she says -- it says you're quite an angel yourself, but would you mind keeping the events of the night to yourself?

She went on to explain it was almost like I was sticking to a script that he was offering. When asked why she continued to respond to his messages, she said I thought it would be rude to ignore it or it would cause him to approach me again.

I was afraid of him coming after me again or coming to confront me or to make fun of me. Labrie, who is now 19 years old, pleaded not guilty to 10 counts including aggravated felony sex assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

His attorney says the two did meet up, they kissed, but he says there was no sex between the two of them.

BERMAN: What about the defendant himself? What about Owen Labrie? Is he going to take the stand?

CARROLL: He is planning to take the stand. That is according to his attorney. Once again his attorney is basically saying, yes, these two did meet up, but this is a case of a young girl who got confused and who now has regrets about what happened.

BERMAN: A legal case here and of course, there's the moral case about what was going on at the school at the time. Jason Carroll, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

Also today, a rare case of the plague with connections to Yosemite National Park, this new case involves a visitor from Georgia, who spent time in the park earlier this month. Californian health officials did not release the person's gender

or condition. Yosemite closed the camp ground for the week as it investigates this latest case, there are various degrees of the plague. The disease can cause high fever, nausea and swollen lymph nodes. Even with modern medicine, we still see a few deadly cases of this every year.

Be sure to follow the show on Facebook, Twitter, @theleadcnn. I'm John Berman on Twitter and Facebook. That's all for today. I turn you over to Wolf Blitzer now in "THE SITUATION ROOM."